THE HALIBUT: DISTEIBUTION. 193 



Perley's report was prepared in 1852, aud there is no evidence of a diminution in that region 

 since the time he wrote. 



Mr. J. Matthew Jones tells me that Halibut are occasionally taken at Five Islands in the 

 Basin of Minas, but that this is of rare occurrence. 



I am indebted to Captahi Ashby for the following facts about the southern limits of the 

 distribution of the Halibut: 



He has never known them to be found south of Sandy Hook, where large ones are occasion- 

 ally taken in winter. In May, 1876,. the schooner " Oartwright," fishing ten miles southeast of 

 Montauk Point, caught many Halibut. In February, 1876, some Noank smacks caught a few Hal- 

 ibut about eight miles from land, off the southeast point of Block Island. Within the last forty 

 years one or two Halibut have been taken off the outer shore of Fisher's Island. He has never 

 known any to be taken in Long Island Sound. Halibut are sometimes taken in three fathoms of 

 water among the breakers of Kantucket, in " blowy weather." Forty years ago they were abundant 

 about Gay Head and Neman's Land. There has been no systematic fishing there lately, but 

 some Halibut have probably been taken. 



The local papers chronicled the capture, on May 1, 1876, off Watch Hill, Ehode Island, of an 

 eighty-pound Halibut, the first taken in that vicinity for many years. 



They are occasionally taken along the shores of Maine and Massachusetts, but so seldom that 

 a capture of this kind by one of the inshore fishermen is always mentioned in the local papers. 



Abundance. — Half a century ago Halibut were extremely abundant in Massachusetts Bay. 

 Elsewhere in this essay are given several instances of their great plenty and voracity, as narrated 

 by some of the early fishermen of Cape Ann. Of late years, however, few are found except in 

 deep water on the off-shore banks. 



The presence of so important a food-fish as the Halibut in America did not long escape the 

 observations of the early English explorers. Capt. John Smith, in his " History of Virginia," wrote: 

 "There is a large sized fish called Hallibut, or Turbut: some are taken so bigg that two men have 

 much a doe to hall them into the boate; but there is such plenty, that the fisher men onely eate 

 the heads & finnes, and throw away the bodies: such in Paris would yeeld 5. or 6. crownes a 

 peece: and this is no discommodity." 



Size. — The Halibut is surpassed in size by only three of our eastern species — the sword fish, 

 the tunny, and the tarpum. There is said, by experienced fishermen, to be a great difference in the 

 size of the two sexes, the females being much the larger; the male is said rarely to exceed fifty 

 pounds in weight, and to be, ordinarily, in poor condition and less desirable for food. The average 

 size of a full-grown female is somewhere between one hundred and one hundred and fifty pounds, 

 though they are sometimes much heavier. Captain Collins, who has had many years' experience 

 in the Gloucester halibut fishery, assures me that he has never seen, one which would weigh over 

 two hundred and fifty pounds, and that one weighing over two hundred and fifty pounds is 

 considered large. There are, however, well-authenticated instances of tbeir attaining greater 

 dimensions. Captain Atwood, in communication with the Boston Society of Natural History, in 

 1864, stated that the largest he had ever taken weighed, when dressed, two hundred and thirty- 

 seven pounds, and would probably have weighed three hundred pounds as taken from the wavii-. 

 In July, 1879, however, the same reliable observer saw at Provincetown two individual? taken 

 near Eace Point, one of which weighed three hundred and fifty-nine pounds (three hii-iiiired and 

 two pounds when dressed), the other, four hundred and one pounds (three hundred .'ir.d twenty- 

 two pounds when dressed). 

 13 P 



